Entrench the Education of Elected Officials: AUMA Request to Councils

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) is asking councils across the province to consider a motion to entrench a commitment to enable mayors and councillors to make use of the Elected Officials Education Program (EOEP).

Here is part of the preamble:
The Elected Officials Education Program (EOEP) began offering education on roles and responsibilities of elected officials in Alberta in 2008. The EOEP was developed to provide municipally elected officials with an opportunity to broaden their knowledge and skills and helps raise the quality of municipal government ... To raise awareness of the program and provide some consistency across the province, the EOEP asks for your support in presenting the following motion to council in support of elected official education: "that the Council approve Administration bringing forward a report on the educational opportunities available through the EOEP, and that consideration be given during budget discussions to allocating monies to training and education of municipal elected officials throughout the 3-year term of the Council."

Although the motion does not require Council members to take the courses (and until they are available via videoconference, it is difficult for Northerners to take them), passing this motion could at least serve to recognize the value of having council members make a commitment to learning about their very great responsibilities and being as effective as possible in this role.

Local Energy and Environmental Citizenship Videoconference: March 12, 2010

Peace River and area residents have the opportunity to attend this event sponsored by Alberta Acts on Climate Change either by videoconference or simultaneous webcast on March 12, 2010. The Peace River site is at Northern Lakes College. The event is free and refreshments will be provided. 

For more details (including a list of the 30 videoconference sites around the province and the days' agenda) or to register, visit http://www.albertaacts.ca/LocalEnergyVC 

This across-Alberta event will help participants from rural Alberta better understand how they can take action on climate change by mitigating or adapting. The organizers, Bill Fricker and Andy Blundell, planned and successfully implemented the 2008 Communities Without Boundaries virtual conference, which I helped organize in Peace River (there were over 20 sites around the province). We had great attendance and the day was very worthwhile. I'm sorry that I'll be missing this one, but hope that the VC room at the college is full on March 12!

Four keynote speakers will provide content and panelists and moderators will be drawn from Alberta universities and colleges and from more than a dozen rural communities. The speakers include:

• Dave Sauchyn, University of Regina Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative
• Rick Kool, Royal Roads University School of Environment and Sustainability
• Gary Holden, CEO Enmax Corporation
• Michael Walters, Greater Edmonton Alliance

At lunchtime, excerpts will be shown from the video "In Transition: From oil dependence to local resilience" developed by TransitionTowns.org in the UK.

Communities without Boundaries Alberta Network: Inaugural Meeting

Mark this date:
Tuesday, March 17, 9:30 to 11:30.

Readers in rural and small town Alberta will want to plan to attend the inaugural videoconference/webcast meeting of the Communities without Boundaries Alberta Network.

In addition to the business of launching this Alberta-wide not-for-profit organization, the session will include three addresses on citizen engagement and community broadband planning:

• Mayor Glenn Taylor, Hinton, AB will address how one rural Alberta community has used and benefited from this technology and the town's plans for the future.
  
• Matt Wenger: Learning from our Neighbours. Mr. Wenger will discuss combining technology and social organization to establish multi-stakeholder involvement.
  
• Dr. Marco Adria will explore the opportunities and challenges for engaging citizens in community planning.

You can participate by videoconference at any of 17 locations across Alberta or by webcast. The Peace River site is at the NAIT/Northern Lakes College Campus.

For more information and to register. go to:

http://www.communitieswithoutboundaries.ca/March17th

Workshop: Relationships, Roles & Responsibilities for Council, Councillors & Administrators

On Friday, November 2, our mayor, Iris Callioux, and the four new councillors (Jim Hancock, Wanda Laurin, Berry Heinen, and myself) attended an all-day workshop hosted by the Town of Grimshaw and presented by Alberta Municipal Affairs & Housing. Councillors and administrators from Grimshaw and the MD of Peace (#135) were also in attendance.

Through lectures and activities, we were educated about a wide variety of topics and reviewed relevant sections of the Municipal Government Act (MGA) (available online at: http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca/Documents/acts/M26.CFM).

It was interesting to learn that a municipality is a corporation with the same powers as a "natural person," except where those powers are limited by the MGA or other legislation. What these "natural person" powers do is give councils flexibility in how the municipality is organized and administered, what services are provided, and the delivery of those services.

We looked at the roles and responsibilities of councillors (section 153 of the MGA), of which there are many! The Chief Elected Official (CEO), who is called a mayor or reeve, has duties in addition to those of a councillor, and those were reviewed as well.

There was considerable time spent on the concept of "pecuniary interest," which is what most people think of as conflict of interest (section 170). The MGA sets out the procedure we need to follow if we have a pecuniary interest in an item that comes up at a meeting, and we did an exercise to give us practice in distinguishing situations where a person would need to exclude him/herself from discussion and decision-making.

The MGA describes pecuniary interest as something that could monetarily affect the councillor, his/her spouse, adult interdependent partners or children, the councillor's or councillor's spouse's/adult interdependent partner's parents, or a business that employs the councillor or one in which the councillor has an interest.

We found out how a councillor can be disqualified (section 174 of the MGA), for instance, by not voting at meetings, by missing all council meetings in an 8-week period, or by being convicted or an offense punishable for five or more years. These are just some of the ways to be disqualified.

Council decision-making processes were discussed in some detail, as were the procedures used at meetings, agenda formats, minutes, etc.

It was a day well-spent in meeting councillors from other municipalities, spending time with members of Peace River Town Council, and in learning a great deal about our new roles and responsibilities. Many thanks to the Town of Grimshaw for scheduling this session and inviting us to participate.

When we attend the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) conference in Calgary at the end of the month (November 28-30), we'll have the opportunity to spend another day on orientation activities for new councillors, which should reinforce what we've already learned and perhaps also introduce new information. It will also be an excellent opportunity to meet new councillors from around the province. The full conference program is available at: http://www.auma.ab.ca/live/MuniLink/Convention/2007+Convention